Finally, a Venom movie we deserve.
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Ever since Venom’s minor appearance in 2007’s Spider-Man 3, we’ve all been eagerly anticipating a standalone movie of Venom. After more than a decade of frustrating wait, it’s finally here and it looks like Venom is ready to eat up our big screens.
First off, director Ruben Fleischer (‘Zombieland’, ‘Gangster Squad’) passed - nay, exceeded - one of the most important litmus tests for a Venom movie: he got the look of Venom absolutely spot on. With its hulking figure, terrifyingly white slits for eyes, sharp shark-like teeth, thick snaking tongue, the movie Venom looks exactly like the Venom in the comics. What the movie also got so right is the way Eddie Brock morphs into Venom. The CGI looks credible and real. It literally looks like the way it was drawn in the comics. Fleischer has stated in the interviews that he went out of his way to ensure that the movie Venom would be as true to the comics as possible, and boy, he has not only met our expectations, he surpassed it. This is the Venom we deserve.
Returning to play another character in a mask is Tom Hardy (‘The Dark Knight Rises’, ‘Dunkirk’). Hardy has the difficult task of portraying essentially two characters - Eddie Brock as well as Venom. An investigative journalist, Brock exposes injustices committed by governments and corporations. When he’s tasked to interview Life Foundation’s CEO Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), Brock questions and confronts Drake about Life Foundation’s illegal experimentations on homeless people. To gather evidence of Drake’s wrongdoings, Brock sneaks into Life Foundation’s facility, where Drake is keeping three symbiotes he had found from outer space. One of the symbiotes, unbeknownst to Brock, manages to sneak into his body, and finds in Brock to be a more than suitable host.
Besides getting the look of Venom right, Fleischer, just as crucially, also manages to get Venom’s voice right. In this movie, Venom is its own consciousness and is voice acted by none other than Brock. Hearing Venom speak, you’d never think the voice belonged to Brock, who did such a great job that you’d think another actor did it. While Brock is a do-gooder, Venom is anything but, interested only in biting people’s heads off and eating their “eyes, lungs, pancreas.” Hardy brings a gleefully sinister and comic tone and demeanor to Venom. Brock and Venom are a classic case of Jekyll and Hyde, two consciousness in one body. Much of the film’s comedy comes from Brock and Venom bickering with each other over what to do.
To say more would be to spoil the film. Just go watch it. Even with its flaws (script and dialogue could have been better), the film is funny and entertaining, and while it didn’t fulfil the gory and violent R21 expectations that some hardcore Venom fans were looking for, the film is still a hell of a ride and is still a satisfying and decent Venom origin story.
And when the film cuts to black, don’t leave just yet. There are two bonus credits scenes.
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